Customers who have completely shifted towards mobile now expect information to be available on any device, in context, when they need it, a Forrester report has found. Their so called mind shift makes them perpetually into mobile, and any companies serving this kind of customer should act quickly to address their needs, the report suggested.

Adapters, Immersers + Perpetuals

Any business with customers who have shifted more than 35% towards being Adapters, Immersers or Perpetuals should move fast to deliver on their mobile expectations, the report noted. The Mobile Mind Shift Index was created by Forrester to categorize people by how far they have moved toward mobile, with the Disconnecteds, Dabblers and Roamers being at the other end of the shift.

Forrester built this index by measuring three drivers of engagement with mobile apps. Device ownership, frequency of access and diversity of locations. The more devices someone has, the more often they interact with them and the greater number of different locations they connect from will indicate if they are closer to Perpetuals. These customers are usually highly educated, have high incomes, and will demand the most from companies they interact with via mobile devices.

These kinds of customers represent about 22% of those surveyed by Forrester, but everyone else is moving rapidly in that direction. That's why businesses need to invest in mobile. Perpetuals and those at that end of the index are more demanding of companies they do interact with via mobile, and they will be loyal to those who respond to their demands.

Chain of connections behind mobile interactions.

Forrester created the index using a statistical base built on weights assigned to each of the three main elements. Namely, 20% weighted to how many devices someone owns, 40% to access and 40% to locations. The Mobile Mind Shift Index then scores every consumer from zero to 100.

Mobile Urgency

How urgently should a company be considering its mobile strategy? It depends on how shifted the customer base is. Considering a full 40% of US online adults are in the Disconnecteds segment, not every business will need to be immediately addressing mobile. But for those who do have customer bases at the shifted end, mobile strategy's do need to be addressed before those customers abandon them for their more savvy competitors.

A Mobile Mind Shift Index score above 35 indicates a company should move quickly to address its customer's mobile demands. A score this high shows the customer base has shifted toward mobile, and the people in this group connect from a variety of devices, apps and locations. In fact, four out of five people in the Perpetuals segment have a tablet in addition to a smartphone, for example.

An index score between 25 and 35 could mean 20% to 30% of the customer base has shifted toward mobile. In this case, Forrester suggests companies do a deeper analysis. It could be that the most valuable customers, those that spend the most and have the most to invest, have a higher index score, and that would mean that company should immediately address its mobile strategy.

Businesses that have an index score below 25 will have a bit more time to address mobile because their customers haven't shifted just yet. However, those same customers will eventually shift, so companies still need to iterate their mobile strategy for when it happens.

Based on over 30,000 US based online surveys, Forrester calculated some key demographics for businesses to measure their Mobile Mind Shift Index with.

Based on some of the key demographics in the above image, companies can measure their customers' index score. If a company has a large percentage of customers in under 35 category, for example, they may have higher index scores. Conversely, if most of a company's customers are connecting only at home and at work, they may have a lower score.

It's not recommended, the report suggests, to ignore mobile if an index score is found to be on the low end. It just means those businesses have a bit more time to examine their core audience for what might make the most sense, mobile wise. Furthermore, Forrester recommends companies take advantage of the data coming back from whatever mobile apps are already out there being used by customers. Data coming in from those apps is extremely valuable, and connecting it to core company data is the real key to unlocking that information's potential.

The problem is those company systems on the back end are the ones that are hardest to connect via constant mobile connections.

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